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What, Exactly, IS a Handout?
a portion of food or the like given to a needy person, as a beggar.
anything given away for nothing, as a free sample of a product by an advertiser.
So essentially, a handout is anything someone gives you that you don’t pay for, work for, or reciprocate with.
If your friends, neighbors, or family care for your children without charge while you work, you just got a handout.
If someone fixes your car without charging you, you just got a handout.
If someone gives you food, or cooks a meal and gives it to you without charge, you just got a handout.
If someone called someone else up and asked them to give you a job, you just got a handout. BUT what you do with that job is all about your own work. (Stop hyperventilating now.)
If a teacher gives you extra time to turn in a paper or a project or to take a test, you just got a handout. I don’t care what the reason for the delay was.
If someone gives you or your family members clothes, or toys, or kitchen items, or whatever, without charge, you just got a handout.
If someone lets you stay with them for whatever reason, without charge, you just got a handout.
If someone styles your hair or nails without charge, you just got a handout.
If someone gives you furniture, things for the house, or the yard, or the car, without charge, you just got a handout.
If someone runs to the store or mows your lawn or cleans up your house without charge (regardless of the reason), you just got a handout.
If someone shows up with Christmas, or birthday, or other holiday presents and/or food, without charge, of course, you just got a handout. So, OK, call them gifts.
If you didn’t pay your marginal tax rate, but were able to take any kind of credits, deductions, or other money off, you just got a handout.
That’s right. A handout.
See, we all have a marginal tax rate applied to our gross earnings. But the government uses TAX TRANSFERS, in the form of deductions, etc., to encourage (incentivize) behavior it feels benefits the country – buy a home, raise a child, provide more than 50% of someone’s support, buy land, stocks, investments, etc. – and those activities, that money you spent, comprises actions the government wants people to take. And it rewards them with ‘tax breaks’ – otherwise known as the TAX TRANSFER.
Some of those tax transfers are so generous, in fact, that the person who earned the money, or made boatloads off picking up a phone and buying some stock, or inherited it, or owned a company that made more boatloads in profits, the person doesn’t have to pay any tax at all. Some even get tax refunds – and I don’t mean EIC because some employer underpaid the employee all year, either.
And see, that tax transfer comes from government revenues that everyone else paid in – just like the social safety net programs. Only, the social safety net programs are referred to as INCOME TRANSFERS. Which is kind of weird when you think about it, because many of those ‘benefits’, that money, is actually TRANSFERRED DIRECTLY INTO THE HANDS OF PROVIDERS OF GOODS AND SERVICES – it never actually ends up in a participant’s actual hands or bank account. The money is actually INCOME for providers.
If an employer doesn’t pay you market wage, or equal wage, or prevailing wage, or living wage, or cuts your hours off your paycheck, or your schedule, or doesn’t pay you at all, or withholds taxes from your check but doesn’t sent that to the government – and keeps it for him or herself, THE EMPLOYER JUST GOT A HANDOUT. And some of those examples really are theft. If you’re really concerned about people paying their fair share of taxes, think about this next time it comes up: those employers I just listed? They don’t pay taxes on the money they just stole from their employees. But those kinds of employers sure are respected in the community for having run a business, aren’t they?
So whether help comes from a government program, or a tax transfer, or a friend, or a family member, or a neighbor, it’s still help – or “handout” as many (usually right wing) posters refer to it.
Don’t do that.
Don’t equate ‘handout’ with some form of theft or scam or dishonesty. It’s what we are all supposed to do, regardless of religion, or politics, or social norm. Because all religions, many policies – like the tax code, and all societies imbue all of us with the expectation that, at some point, when we see a need, when we have enough or extra which will fill that need, as HUMAN BEINGS, as members of a congregation or synagogue or mosque or temple, we are expected to give of ourselves once in a while when we can.
And one more thing. No one is successful completely on his or her own. Someone has to raise them, provide for them, find doctors for them, get them around to all the little extracurricular activities, educate them, allow them to live in a rental unit or buy a house (landlords and banks here), invite them for an interview, and invite them to work. Scattered in all that are references, recommendations, and occasionally, transcripts, credentials, and maybe even a good credit score – if there are any left – and emotional support from friends, family, and/or spouses (usually, anyway). Someone made and paved the roads, ran the electrical wires to the place so they could take a shower, and someone ran the pipes for the water. Someone bought the desk or the forklift, or the factory machine. Some bank gave those buyers the loan to buy those with, too.
Yes, people generally work hard and try to do the best job they can. But as we all know, sometimes, that just isn’t enough to avoid being laid off or fired. All that diligence is no guarantee you will always have a job. You lose your job, you lose your paycheck – your income – the money you would normally use to afford your own bills, food, presents, clothes, etc. We also know that anyone can lose a job at anytime for almost any reason – sometimes, for no reason.
Same with health. No guarantees it will remain good.
Same with spouses or ‘significant others’. Sometimes they die or just leave.
Losing a job, or your health, or a relationship doesn’t diminish a person, who they are, or what makes them, them. It’s just loss that has to be made up somewhere else, some other way.
So for those who would begrudge someone, anyone, from receiving some kind of help along the way, just remember that there but for the grace of God go you. It could be your turn tomorrow or a year from now. Stop that stuff about ‘if a person doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat’ because the way you all are trying to put that out there is not in line with the context of the statement.
Stop using God, or ideology, or both, as your personal excuse to bully another human being. Nobody leaves here alive. We'd be better off if we all treated each other the way we wanted to be treated. I think I've heard that somewhere before. Oh. Yeah. Jesus said it.
http://changeaddress2004.newsvine.com/_news/2013/08/05/19875131-what-exactly-is-a-handout
anything given away for nothing, as a free sample of a product by an advertiser.
So essentially, a handout is anything someone gives you that you don’t pay for, work for, or reciprocate with.
If your friends, neighbors, or family care for your children without charge while you work, you just got a handout.
If someone fixes your car without charging you, you just got a handout.
If someone gives you food, or cooks a meal and gives it to you without charge, you just got a handout.
If someone called someone else up and asked them to give you a job, you just got a handout. BUT what you do with that job is all about your own work. (Stop hyperventilating now.)
If a teacher gives you extra time to turn in a paper or a project or to take a test, you just got a handout. I don’t care what the reason for the delay was.
If someone gives you or your family members clothes, or toys, or kitchen items, or whatever, without charge, you just got a handout.
If someone lets you stay with them for whatever reason, without charge, you just got a handout.
If someone styles your hair or nails without charge, you just got a handout.
If someone gives you furniture, things for the house, or the yard, or the car, without charge, you just got a handout.
If someone runs to the store or mows your lawn or cleans up your house without charge (regardless of the reason), you just got a handout.
If someone shows up with Christmas, or birthday, or other holiday presents and/or food, without charge, of course, you just got a handout. So, OK, call them gifts.
If you didn’t pay your marginal tax rate, but were able to take any kind of credits, deductions, or other money off, you just got a handout.
That’s right. A handout.
See, we all have a marginal tax rate applied to our gross earnings. But the government uses TAX TRANSFERS, in the form of deductions, etc., to encourage (incentivize) behavior it feels benefits the country – buy a home, raise a child, provide more than 50% of someone’s support, buy land, stocks, investments, etc. – and those activities, that money you spent, comprises actions the government wants people to take. And it rewards them with ‘tax breaks’ – otherwise known as the TAX TRANSFER.
Some of those tax transfers are so generous, in fact, that the person who earned the money, or made boatloads off picking up a phone and buying some stock, or inherited it, or owned a company that made more boatloads in profits, the person doesn’t have to pay any tax at all. Some even get tax refunds – and I don’t mean EIC because some employer underpaid the employee all year, either.
And see, that tax transfer comes from government revenues that everyone else paid in – just like the social safety net programs. Only, the social safety net programs are referred to as INCOME TRANSFERS. Which is kind of weird when you think about it, because many of those ‘benefits’, that money, is actually TRANSFERRED DIRECTLY INTO THE HANDS OF PROVIDERS OF GOODS AND SERVICES – it never actually ends up in a participant’s actual hands or bank account. The money is actually INCOME for providers.
If an employer doesn’t pay you market wage, or equal wage, or prevailing wage, or living wage, or cuts your hours off your paycheck, or your schedule, or doesn’t pay you at all, or withholds taxes from your check but doesn’t sent that to the government – and keeps it for him or herself, THE EMPLOYER JUST GOT A HANDOUT. And some of those examples really are theft. If you’re really concerned about people paying their fair share of taxes, think about this next time it comes up: those employers I just listed? They don’t pay taxes on the money they just stole from their employees. But those kinds of employers sure are respected in the community for having run a business, aren’t they?
So whether help comes from a government program, or a tax transfer, or a friend, or a family member, or a neighbor, it’s still help – or “handout” as many (usually right wing) posters refer to it.
Don’t do that.
Don’t equate ‘handout’ with some form of theft or scam or dishonesty. It’s what we are all supposed to do, regardless of religion, or politics, or social norm. Because all religions, many policies – like the tax code, and all societies imbue all of us with the expectation that, at some point, when we see a need, when we have enough or extra which will fill that need, as HUMAN BEINGS, as members of a congregation or synagogue or mosque or temple, we are expected to give of ourselves once in a while when we can.
And one more thing. No one is successful completely on his or her own. Someone has to raise them, provide for them, find doctors for them, get them around to all the little extracurricular activities, educate them, allow them to live in a rental unit or buy a house (landlords and banks here), invite them for an interview, and invite them to work. Scattered in all that are references, recommendations, and occasionally, transcripts, credentials, and maybe even a good credit score – if there are any left – and emotional support from friends, family, and/or spouses (usually, anyway). Someone made and paved the roads, ran the electrical wires to the place so they could take a shower, and someone ran the pipes for the water. Someone bought the desk or the forklift, or the factory machine. Some bank gave those buyers the loan to buy those with, too.
Yes, people generally work hard and try to do the best job they can. But as we all know, sometimes, that just isn’t enough to avoid being laid off or fired. All that diligence is no guarantee you will always have a job. You lose your job, you lose your paycheck – your income – the money you would normally use to afford your own bills, food, presents, clothes, etc. We also know that anyone can lose a job at anytime for almost any reason – sometimes, for no reason.
Same with health. No guarantees it will remain good.
Same with spouses or ‘significant others’. Sometimes they die or just leave.
Losing a job, or your health, or a relationship doesn’t diminish a person, who they are, or what makes them, them. It’s just loss that has to be made up somewhere else, some other way.
So for those who would begrudge someone, anyone, from receiving some kind of help along the way, just remember that there but for the grace of God go you. It could be your turn tomorrow or a year from now. Stop that stuff about ‘if a person doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat’ because the way you all are trying to put that out there is not in line with the context of the statement.
Stop using God, or ideology, or both, as your personal excuse to bully another human being. Nobody leaves here alive. We'd be better off if we all treated each other the way we wanted to be treated. I think I've heard that somewhere before. Oh. Yeah. Jesus said it.
http://changeaddress2004.newsvine.com/_news/2013/08/05/19875131-what-exactly-is-a-handout
You know, the one time I actually needed help was when I lost a job. I filed for unemployment benefits because I had a mortgage, bills, car payments and I had no idea how long it was going to take for me to find a job. I was declined benefits because I turned down a job for part time, minimum wage.... the benefits I was supposed to receive were twice of that that I was going to make with this nothing job but only a fraction of what I was making in my chosen field.
Never again will I go through the humiliation of "asking for help" from a system I paid into my whole life and never once took a red cent out of. Never.... I will do everything else but I will never, ever again ask for unemployment.
Never again will I go through the humiliation of "asking for help" from a system I paid into my whole life and never once took a red cent out of. Never.... I will do everything else but I will never, ever again ask for unemployment.
"I stink at getting hand outs!!" - but you give plenty; you've given me a lot, but I didn't consider them as handouts; I considered them as acts of kindness/friendship. Teko, too..
I guess your sister is getting "paid" by you taking her sons' clothing; her closet is clean...... but we don't look at those things a "payment"...
I'm really disturbed that acts of kindness could be construed as "handout"...for me, that kind of negates what we do here......
I guess your sister is getting "paid" by you taking her sons' clothing; her closet is clean...... but we don't look at those things a "payment"...
I'm really disturbed that acts of kindness could be construed as "handout"...for me, that kind of negates what we do here......
Barb--- you are a good friend. I'm sure your list of kind acts is very long and those that receive them from you have never once thought of them as a hand out.
When my sister gives me her son's clothes for my boys so I don't have to buy them . . . I give her an appreciative hug and she's got a clean closet.
When my sister gives me her son's clothes for my boys so I don't have to buy them . . . I give her an appreciative hug and she's got a clean closet.
Man, that list is something else. I stink at getting hand outs!!
I think we can always be upset with the people that apply for benefits that are 'working the system' -- basically overloading it making it more difficult for those who really are in need of any sort of "hand out". (I don't generally call it that. I call it help that they need.)
I like your question iladvocate. What else might help?
I think we can always be upset with the people that apply for benefits that are 'working the system' -- basically overloading it making it more difficult for those who really are in need of any sort of "hand out". (I don't generally call it that. I call it help that they need.)
I like your question iladvocate. What else might help?
So now we're equating gifts, or kind acts with handouts? Okay, I'll cut off Christmas gifts and tell the kids & grands that I'm done giving them handouts. Let's move along.
My neighbor's husband passed away and my husband and I have done a few things to help her out, because she's lost and alone - a lot of my part is psychological to help her through the pain; hubby isn't good with that, so he helps out with practical things..... those aren't "handouts"; they are acts of kindness/friendship to help ease the pain of someone who is suffering...
A "handout" is something someone "expects", sits and waits for every month that they did not earn, or someone standing on the street corner panhandling, etc.... no I don't mean SS benefits or Medicare, because we worked for and earned those; they are not "handouts" and they are the only "real" entitlements there are; we worked for and contributed for those benefits; we are "entitled" to get them. Nobody is entitled to welfare, Medicaid, etc.
I certainly do not agree that everything given me, that I didn't pay for, was a "handout". Above mentioned neighbor brought me a beautiful rose bush; I didn't pay for it, but it's certainly not a handout; it's a token of appreciation.
I won't even go into the tax thing; to think that legal deductions would be considered a "handout" ...
I find it very disheartening and appalling (not to mention somewhat disgusting) to think that acts of kindness, friendship or gifts given for any reason could even be considered as "handouts" ... I guess every word of encouragement, that I post on forums, or via PM, here on MH that might help someone would be considered a "handout"...
That's outrageous.
My neighbor's husband passed away and my husband and I have done a few things to help her out, because she's lost and alone - a lot of my part is psychological to help her through the pain; hubby isn't good with that, so he helps out with practical things..... those aren't "handouts"; they are acts of kindness/friendship to help ease the pain of someone who is suffering...
A "handout" is something someone "expects", sits and waits for every month that they did not earn, or someone standing on the street corner panhandling, etc.... no I don't mean SS benefits or Medicare, because we worked for and earned those; they are not "handouts" and they are the only "real" entitlements there are; we worked for and contributed for those benefits; we are "entitled" to get them. Nobody is entitled to welfare, Medicaid, etc.
I certainly do not agree that everything given me, that I didn't pay for, was a "handout". Above mentioned neighbor brought me a beautiful rose bush; I didn't pay for it, but it's certainly not a handout; it's a token of appreciation.
I won't even go into the tax thing; to think that legal deductions would be considered a "handout" ...
I find it very disheartening and appalling (not to mention somewhat disgusting) to think that acts of kindness, friendship or gifts given for any reason could even be considered as "handouts" ... I guess every word of encouragement, that I post on forums, or via PM, here on MH that might help someone would be considered a "handout"...
That's outrageous.
Already posted about my experience with benefits representation so wont reiterate. I do think the focus as regards funds should be to assist people who are unable to work with work skills so they can return to work.
My concern at this point would be with people who do work and are unable to support themselves. Or people who have retired and paid into the system in the past. I have seen people face eviction and other issues that should not occur. I know some people are opposed to the minimum wage but what else might help?
My concern at this point would be with people who do work and are unable to support themselves. Or people who have retired and paid into the system in the past. I have seen people face eviction and other issues that should not occur. I know some people are opposed to the minimum wage but what else might help?
If someone is disabled and cannot do their job, then they cannot do their job. I've turned 2 of these people in. One, they did nothing about. Nothing... The other got reevaluated and reclassified as partially disabled, cut what they were giving him in half.
I know people who have been classified as "disabled" and wait for their check to clear the bank, but are out there doing "side jobs" and earning cash under the table in order to keep that check coming in... those people are accepting a hand out.
I have two things to say in response to this.
1. You will always find some of these, thats a given.
2. It is your responsibility if you have knowledge of this, to report it.
But what this also does is bring up the subject of exactly what is disability. What does it mean exactly.
That is a subject for a whole nother time! lol
I have two things to say in response to this.
1. You will always find some of these, thats a given.
2. It is your responsibility if you have knowledge of this, to report it.
But what this also does is bring up the subject of exactly what is disability. What does it mean exactly.
That is a subject for a whole nother time! lol
I'm prepared to take a beating for this statement, so here it goes. I think there are able bodied people who sit around and wait for the monthly check to clear the bank, and have done so for most of their lives.... those people are accepting a hand out.
I know people who have been classified as "disabled" and wait for their check to clear the bank, but are out there doing "side jobs" and earning cash under the table in order to keep that check coming in... those people are accepting a hand out.
I think there is abundant fraud in almost any and every social program and I don't think we do much to stop it these days.
I know people who have been classified as "disabled" and wait for their check to clear the bank, but are out there doing "side jobs" and earning cash under the table in order to keep that check coming in... those people are accepting a hand out.
I think there is abundant fraud in almost any and every social program and I don't think we do much to stop it these days.
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